It’s been this long since people saw the comet dubbed NEOWISE, in the sky tonight, and it will be that long until it reappears – sometime around year 8746, assuming we don’t reset the numbers again for any reason. I just viewed it tonight in the sky with the naked eye, and through binoculars. A magnificence of dramatic elegance!

It’s wonderful to me that we can frame our lives within the perspective of astronomical timespans such as these. During the previous appearance was when most of the stories we know about ourselves began. What begins today that will last another 7,000 years? Consider our breath, of the same ancient oxygen. The Pan-Galactic Imperium is barely more than 1,000 years old at the time of Bones of Starlight. Please, forgive me for interrupting our story to observe this particular turning.

As with my first appearance in the sci-fi genre periodicals in Locus issue #666, I’m going to take the repeating-6 interpretation that links to creative awakening and opening to our higher dimensions of being. Oh yes, I’m all about that. I’ll hoist that torch as though my arm won’t fall for 6,766 years.